60 Pak militants freed from Indian jails since 2004

On a day when police said they stopped a suicide-bombing mission by capturing three Pakistanis belonging to JeM, HT found that at least 60 Pakistani militants have been released over the last four years, reports A Joshi.

On a day when police said they stopped a suicide-bombing mission by capturing three Pakistanis belonging to the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hindustan Times found that at least 60 Pakistani militants have been released over the last four years after serving sentences, or freed for lack of evidence.

It is not known if the three men were among the 60 released since 2004. They were deported to and accepted by Pakistan, a highly placed police source said.

This is particularly significant at a time when Pakistan is still refusing to accept that the lone survivor of the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, is a Pakistani.

The militants were mostly released from Kot Bhalwal jail, 12 km north of Jammu. For five years, this jail was home to Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar, set free in 1999, in exchange for hostages on an Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Kandahar.